From Phil Och's Ballad of Billy Sol:Stand tall, Billie Sol, we don't know you at allWe've taken down your pictures from the wallWell, we don't want to handle an agriculture scandalWe have got to face elections in the fallIt was a big deal at the time.

Of course, you could never fall for a con. You seem like a guy who is way too smart for that. You're not fooled by all of the government scams and the lies in the media. Don't even get me started on Big Medicine and the tricks that doctors commit in the name of profit. You're too smart for that. Guys like you and me are different.

Former Associated Press correspondent Mike Cochran, who covered Estes' trials and schemes throughout the 1970s and `80s, recalled writing about how Estes made millions of dollars in phone fertilizer tanks

Yeah they keep calling me, I know what that sounds like.

"...and you can add Sunday delivery for only 1c more per day! See we know you need to save money!" You know I haven't seen a physical newspaper in five years right?"...low APR of 0.0%! Isn't that great?!" like the extra point zero makes a difference, but forget to mention that it goes up to 20% three months later.

Yeah I hate telemarketers who order their phone fertilizer by the tankful.

lilbjorn:Meanwhile, Jeffrey Skilling, who exceeded Estes' level of fraud in every way, is also scheduled to get out of jail years early. Business as usual in Texas.

It's part of Texan Heritage. State was founded on a scam. The Texicans got free land on two conditions: pay your taxes and become catholic, nether of which they did. On the other hand, the land they got for free was pretty useless.

One of the strangest episodes in his life involved the death of a U.S. Department of Agriculture official who was investigating Estes just before he was accused in the fertilizer tank case.

Henry Marshall's 1961 death was initially ruled a suicide even though he had five bullet wounds. But in 1984, Estes told a grand jury that Johnson had ordered the official killed to prevent him from exposing Estes' fraudulent business dealings and ties with the vice president.

The prosecutor who conducted the grand jury investigation said there was no corroboration of Estes' allegations, though a judge ruled that it was "clear and convincing" that the death was not self-inflicted.

Hey, who would ever suspect Lyndon Johnson of being involved in the death of someone?